A few long-standing anchors within London’s digital creative community have recently celebrated business anniversaries and milestones. With over 300 companies and more than 9,000 people employed in the sector, these companies are a testament that London is a place where startups can grow into reputable, established businesses.
The London Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) talked with a representative from each company to learn more about how they’ve grown over the years and celebrated their milestones.
adHOME Creative
From startup to success
adHOME Creative has its origins from back in 1999, when it was founded as Surge Communications. After many years of growth, the company was purchased by two Vice-Presidents, Mary-Ellen Willard and Mark Brown, in 2012, and rebranded as adHOME later that year.
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Credit: adHOME Creative
Over the last several years, the largest change has been the integration of a full suite of digital marketing services to stay ahead of industry trends and offer new and innovative solutions to our customers. This includes web design and development, digital advertising, and social media.
We now have 25 team members supporting local, national, and international clients. We have been members of an exclusive network of independent advertising agencies across the country for many years, providing adHOME with the national reach of a much larger agency.
Why London?
London is a wonderful city for entrepreneurial businesses like adHOME. It has a vibrant, creative culture, cultivated by both Western and Fanshawe, from which to draw talent. It has excellent corporate support services for banking, internet, insurance, and legal. And above all that, it’s a beautiful, family-focused city which provides the work/life balance we value for our team.
Celebrating milestones
It’s been five years since our rebranding as adHOME and we wanted a chance to celebrate our success with our staff, clients, family, and partners. We also wanted to share our newly renovated home at 318 Wolfe Street with the community. We spent much of last year creating an open concept work space, utilizing the principles of the “living office” to design a modern, multi-functional work environment.
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Credit: adHOME Creative
The adHOME team held their open house on May 25, 2017. To see how they celebrated, search #adHOMECelebrates on social media.
What’s next?
adHOME is continually launching new services for clients to help them become more competitive and drive business to the bottom line. Last year, we acquired a local web development team to supplement our digital team and launched a new franchise Intranet platform called zeeHIVE.
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Credit: adHOME Creative
We also have plans to launch a new digital auditing service, expand our popular Brand Blueprint product, conduct local SEM/SEO training sessions in conjunction with Google, and roll out new business performance advisory services.
To support this, we are always looking for bright, talented people to join our family.
MLD Solutions
From startup to success
It began in 1989 when Mona Lam Deslippe taught her first WordPerfect 4.2 class. Computer technology was in its infancy. As the industry grew and expanded, Mona responded to the need through growing her own services and staff. MLD Solutions Inc. now offers a diverse range of products and services, from Microsoft Dynamics CRM to our EDGE4 application for school boards.
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Credit: MLD website
The vision has always been to simplify and maximize technology for users, whether it is a custom application, training, or a Microsoft product. 28 years later, MLD Solutions Inc. has a team of 10 dedicated staff who use cutting-edge technology to help individuals and businesses find strategic solutions to their most pressing challenges.
Why London?
London is a great community to grow a business, given the resources available such as the LEDC, TechAlliance, and the Small Business Centre. There are a number of technology companies based in London, as well as other supportive organizations such as the London Chamber of Commerce and Pillar Nonprofit Network. The opportunity to work with other companies is satisfying.
There are also many features of London that make it a community in which to raise children while having the amenities of larger cities just down the highway.
Celebrating milestones
During our growth, the community has been very supportive. From a personal standpoint, the community also opened its arms and provided amazing support during one of the most challenging years for Mona. Our open house was a way we could celebrate with our clients, friends, and the community at large.
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Our business is like a family, and we believe that our clients are a part of that family. Many of our clients work with us remotely and do not see our office space. We are very proud of our company culture and the space which represents it so well. It was a way to say thank you to our community.
What’s next?
It is exciting to work in an industry which is always expanding and innovative. In addition to our core products and services, we have re-launched our training offerings and plan on expanding what is offered with partners in the community.
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Credit: MLD website
Product development is now our priority. We are developing products which work on the Dynamics CRM platform. We are also re-developing one of our products which will enable people to share their content interactively to a global marketplace.
View more about MLD Solution’s open house by searching #MLDCulture on their social media channels.
Ontario SEO
From startup to success
While working as a digital marketing consultant in 2005, Ontario SEO President, Wayne Atkinson, noticed a trend – clients were paying good money for strategy and expertise but lacked the time and resources to implement them. This presented an opportunity to bridge the gap between creating strategy and getting results. Wayne joined forces with his wife and co-owner Kim Atkinson, and Ontario SEO was born.
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Credit: HRM Photography
Ten years later, we continue to hold a unique place in the digital marketing landscape. Unlike many small agencies that take a ‘jack of all trades’ approach, Ontario SEO is committed to delivering specialized service and expertise in a niche market.
Why London?
London has a very active and close business community that takes pride in networking and supporting one another. We’ve built some great relationships interacting at this ground-level and we were honoured to accept the Consumers Choice award for Business Excellence in 2015. Running a business in London also makes sense from a cost perspective, which allows us to offer a competitive edge against Waterloo and Toronto markets.
Celebrating milestones
We’re thrilled to be celebrating three-years in our new office at The Factory. The building is located at 538 Adelaide Street in London, Ontario’s Old East Village and is home to a collection of creative businesses. })
Credit: Ontario SEO
This anniversary is a reminder of the success and growth we’ve achieved, thanks to London’s healthy business economy and a team of incredibly talented people who work hard to keep our clients happy every day. The Ontario SEO team celebrated three years in their space with some tasty, local, vegan cupcakes from the Boombox Bakeshop.
What’s next?
Plans for the future include doubling our staff and expanding our scope of business events. We currently offer free seminars to educate clients and professionals about SEO and AdWords, which we’ll be expanding to include strategic digital marketing practices. We have a great space for these events and we’re excited to share it with the business community.
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Credit: Ontario SEO Facebook
To learn more about Ontario SEO and their service offerings, check out their website.
Share your story
Did your company just celebrate a work anniversary or a significant milestone? We love sharing about how London startups and established companies have grown, expanded, or have found success. Contact us below if you have any news to share.
Growing and transitioning into a new home can be a challenge. From finding the right space for your team to getting connected to resources, we can help your business find the right place to call home. Get in touch with one of our business developers to learn more.
